


Piercing Aftercare

by jennandanica



Series: Citadel: Luke Evans and Alex Skarsgard [185]
Category: Actor RPF, Citadel (Journalfen RPG), True Blood RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-08 13:32:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14106471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennandanica/pseuds/jennandanica





	Piercing Aftercare

  
**players only. takes place in Shawnigan Lake, BC. backdated to late February 2016, roughly a week after[Luke got his nipples pierced.](http://citadel-luke.dreamwidth.org/9107.html)**

"Luke, are you done with your shower yet?" Alex calls over his shoulder. He's becoming something of an expert at this: juggling a bottle and a baby and a burp cloth while simultaneously having a coherent conversation. Of all the skills he'd never expected to admire, and certainly never to _acquire_... "There you go, my beautiful girl," he murmurs, praising Kaja for a champion burp. "Are you going to be nice and let your brother eat breakfast for once? Yeah?" He kisses the tip of her nose, then carefully sets her down in the bouncy seat. "Okay, you chill there for a minute."  
  
"Yeah," Luke calls back, frowning into the mirror as he gently squeezes the area around his right nipple. It's hot and red and swollen and it _hurts_. Not in a good way. And the other one's the same, just not quite as bad, yet. "I think there's something wrong with my piercings."  
  
"What?" Pausing in the process of lifting Rhys from his crib, Alex settles him back in and nudges a pacifier into his mouth. "Problem?" he asks, seeking out his husband. "What's wrong?"  
  
"I think they're infected," Luke says, showing Alex just how red and sore the one is. He gives it another light squeeze and it oozes pus. "Ew." He looks up at Alex. "They were sore yesterday but not like this," he says, reaching for a tissue and wiping the yellow away with a soft hiss.  
  
"What the fuck? I've been cleaning them every day just like we're supposed to." Alex wrinkles his nose. All right, perhaps not _exactly_ as he's supposed to do... After all, they're his boy's nipples; obviously there's been a lot of licking involved. But Alex has always been careful to swab the piercings with alcohol again, last thing. He presses his fingertip to flesh gone an angry shade of red.

"Fuck, ow," Luke says, shrinking away from the touch. He glares at Alex. "Should I call Dan or just go see the doctor?"

"Doctor, I guess." Alex shoots him a saturnine glare in return, on principle. "Do you think you need antibiotics or something?"  
  
"Well, I don't think this is going to clear up on its own," Luke says a little sharply, looking rather miserable. "Are you okay to look after the babies if I can get in to see someone today?" he asks, wandering into the bedroom where he left his phone.

"Yeah, I can... Wait, are you pissed off at me?"

"No, they just hurt," Luke says, looking up the club's main number in his contacts. He definitely wants a Cit-affiliated doctor for this. "But we probably should've been following Dan's instructions."

"We were," Alex protests, "mostly." He's starting to feel guilty as fuck, now. Watching his husband and seeing him hurt this way.

Luke doesn't respond to that. He knows anything he says right now will be out of pain and yes, anger at being in pain. He dials Citadel and gets put through to the Vancouver branch. "Hi, this is Luke Evans." He rattles off his member number. "We're in Shawnigan Lake, just outside Victoria, and I was hoping you might have a doctor listed nearby taking patients?" He gives the woman his postal code and waits while she looks up some names. "It's not an emergency but I was hoping to see someone today." He writes down a few numbers and sits on the side of the bed after he hangs up. "Do you want to stay here or come with if I can get in?" It's forty-five minutes there and another forty-five back, add at least another hour or two in the waiting room and at the appointment and neither one of them's been left alone with the twins for that long.

"Of course I want to come with you," Alex answers, surprised Luke would even wonder. But then he realizes why Luke asked. "Or... You'd rather we didn't?"

"No." Luke shakes his head. "I just need to call and I don't want to say I can be there in an hour if it's us all going because there's no way we can get Rhys and Kaja out the door in fifteen minutes." He sighs. "Has Rhys even eaten yet?"  
  
Alex shakes his head. "No," he softly says, and flexes his fingers idly. Uselessly. "You're okay to drive yourself? I'll stay here with the babies."

Luke nods. "You can always call Lisa," their closest neighbour, empty-nester, mother of five and grandmother of twelve who all live far, far away, "if you need some help." He calls the first number he was given and explains the situation to the receptionist. The doctor can squeeze him in at some point if he gets there before noon.  
  
Alex opens his mouth to speak, but then their son lets out a hungry wail. Luke's busy enough anyway without him arguing, so he drops the issue and heads back into the nursery.  
  
Having dressed in a butter-soft fitted t-shirt and jeans, Luke joins Alex in the nursery. Kaja's gone back to sleep and Rhys is sucking hungrily at a bottle wielded by his dad. "We've got time for you guys to come if you want," he offers.  
  
"Nah. If you're all right." Stretched out in one of the plush gliders, Alex props his feet up on the matching ottoman. "Only– You sure you don't have a fever?"

"I don't know," Luke says, placing his hand on his forehead. "I can't tell."  
  
Alex frowns, instantly worried. "Come here, my love," he says, and adjusts Rhys in the crook of his arm so that he can hold out a hand to his husband.  
  
Luke takes Alex's hand and folds to the floor, resting his cheek on his husband's knee. "I'm sorry I was grumpy."  
  
"What?" The apology doesn't even make sense to Alex. He presses his palm to Luke's forehead. "You're warm. I guess. Fuck, I can't tell. _Älskling_ , do you want me to drive you?"  
  
Luke shakes his head. They can't be attached at the hip all the time, especially now with the twins. "I can do it," he says. He kneels up and in, kissing Rhys's forehead and then his husband. "I'll be back as quickly as I can."  
  
Biting his lower lip, Alex nods. He's got a feeling there is to be groveling in his very near future. "I love you. Drive safely."

* * *

Luke's back by mid-afternoon. The doctor hadn't been able to see him until just before noon and then he'd needed to grab something to eat, realizing he hadn't even managed breakfast that morning. A long wait at the pharmacy, followed by running into construction, and he finally walks through the door roughly five hours after he left.

"And if I start a commotion, I'll only end up losing you," Alex sings softly, continuing to pace back and forth across the living room, its wide windows thrown open to the lake. So far, Kaja doesn't seem to think much of his singing, or his musical preferences. But Rhys? Rhys is a Buzzcocks fan, just like him. "And that's worse..." He looks up when Luke comes in, and gives his husband a 'he's almost almost _almost_ asleep!' nod.

Luke smiles and sets his prescriptions down on the counter in the kitchen. He pulls out steaks from the fridge and sets them to marinate, shucking some corn to go with them.

Eventually Alex tiptoes into the kitchen, stepping up behind his husband to slip his arms around him. "Hey," he whispers, pressing his lips to Luke's throat. "What did the doctor say?"  
  
"He said it's an infection," Luke says, tossing the tassels and husks in the compost bin. "Like we thought. I have an antibiotic to take, some cream to put on them and he told me off for not following Dan's instructions to the letter."  
  
"Hey, that's not your fault," Alex protests, instantly annoyed. "Did you tell him it was my fault? You should've." No one's got the right to scold _his_ boy.  
  
"I didn't say it was your fault, but I told him you'd been the one taking care of them," Luke says, turning in Alex's arms and looking up at his husband, his cheeks flushed as he adds, "and licking them."  
  
Chagrin wars with smugness for control of Alex's expression, so he settles on biting firmly down on his bottom lip to hold it all back. "And what'd he say?"  
  
"He wasn't impressed, and he said if you want me to keep the piercings, you need to follow the directions – strictly – or risk me getting really sick or having to take them out," Luke says, although it's not quite the way the doctor put things. He wasn't nearly as nice about it. "He said if they don't get better, I need to see him again and that I shouldn't just take them out because that traps the infection under the skin, whereas right now it's coming out around the barbells."  
  
Now Alex winces. "I'm sorry, _älskling_ ," he says softly. "I never meant to mess you up." He presses his forehead against Luke's, and promises, "I'll be good. For real." With a sigh he decides, "I won't touch them at all. You do all the care from now on, okay?" It's probably the only way to be sure that Alex won't interfere with the healing process.  
  
Luke smiles. "I think that would probably be better," he allows. He's enjoyed the attention, the one-on-one in their busy days with the twins, but he really feels like crap right now and he really wants to keep the piercings.  
  
Alex cups Luke's cheek in his hand. "Do you forgive me?" he asks quietly, because while it seems like Luke does, his boy certainly puts up with more from him than he could ever even ask for. So he still feels the need to check.

"Of course," Luke says with a smile, turning his head to press a kiss to Alex's palm. "Besides, it's my fault too. I should've insisted I clean them from the start. Or that you not lick them." Although he's not sure how successful the last would have been.  
  
"Right. Because that totally would've worked," Alex says, unknowingly echoing his boy's thought. He kisses Luke, lingering over it. "I love you. I'm sorry."  
  
Luke nods. "I love you too," he says. He smiles. "Should I make us some coffee and we'll take it out back while we can?"  
  
"Yeah." Linking their fingers, Alex presses a kiss to the back of Luke's hand, then releases him. "Sounds good."


End file.
